The Addictive Scent That Gave Vogue’s Pre–Met Gala Party Its Old-World Charm

For Vogue’s pre–Met Gala party, which was held inside Forlini’s, the storied 1940s Italian restaurant in lower Manhattan, red roses, baby’s breath, and heavy white tablecloths cover the tables. On one television in the bar out back, The Godfather is on. The phrase “Where have all the men gone?” flashes across the screen, while models in red lace dresses and rouge lipstick drink tequila by candlelight.

In the corner of the room, one Vogue editor inspects the tall votive candle by Byredo; part of the cultish fragrance house’s Saint collection, the glowing red vessel hints at founder Ben Gorham’s Catholic upbringing. “The Altar candle was the collective memory of the many churches I visited growing up,” says Gorham of the limited-edition scent, which was inspired by prayer candles known as veladoras. “I remember the smell of cold stone floors, wood benches, and, oddly, paper.”

Out of the trio of pillars—Altar is sweet with notes of cloves, ylang, and vetiver; Incense packs a powerful punch of patchouli and eucalyptus and reminds Gorham of both local temples in his mother’s native India and “California in the ’60s”—it is the Rosewater candle, with its chorus of Bulgarian rose, rose petals, and rose absolute, that provides the restaurant with its powdery and floral trace. The mysterious dimension, which was designed to evoke “the church and all its rituals,” Gorham says, perfectly enhances the night’s old-world charm, with its nod to Monday night’s gala theme and accompanying exhibition, “Heavenly Bodies: Fashion and the Catholic Imagination.”

Soon, models such as Camilla Deterre, Andreea Diaconu, and Paloma Elsesser begin sashaying around with roses they’ve plucked from bouquets. Other revelers, dancing late into the night, can be seen leaving the party with the company’s distinctive white-and-black candle box clutched under one arm. As one merrymaker put it, “It smells too good not to take home.”